You might think you don’t need a coach, or your current coach is good. You need a coach, and I promise you Nico is better.

 

At 34 I realized that it was time for me to finally look at working towards my goal of being a successful runner. When I say “successful” keep in mind I had a very low standard of what successful was for me, and would have been excited had I been able to run 2 minutes straight without being out of breath and miserable.

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Nico was referred to me by a co-worker as someone who was an incredible athlete and amazing runner. As my co-worker listed off a few of Nico’s achievements I was instantly struck with panic. Here I was, rocking my doughy COVID body wanting to learn how to run from someone who should, and likely does coach elite athletes. While I was an elite athlete when I was younger, those were the good old days, and to be honest I was a terrible runner then as well. I’ve been told by many runner friends that I need to run more quietly and softy to which I’ve always replied “elephants don’t run quietly, have you seen me? It’s not possible”.  When I first spoke with Nico over email, his excitement and passion came through instantly with his words. I felt instantly comfortable as though I wasn’t going to be seen as a waste of time, just because I should probably have been using a ‘couch to 10k’ app on my phone.

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We set up our first training session, and I managed to show up which was a feat of its own despite knowing that if I didn’t I’d never really improve and before I’d know it I’d be 60 and trying to learn to run then. That being said, I’m pretty sure that Nico would still be an awesome coach if you’re any age.

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While I’m sure that Nico would never admit it, I’m probably the most uncoordinated person he has met. I tried to explain that I’m aware of this and not bothered because after becoming friends with past fitness trainers, they now ask me to send them videos of me trying to do plyometrics when they are having a bad day because it makes them laugh, but ever professional and kind Nico didn’t break his character and was incredibly supportive and never indicated he felt this way.

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During all my years of training in various sports, I’ve always been more receptive to negative criticism than positive reinforcement. This was clearly not Nico’s style and I honestly thought that I wouldn’t be able to improve as fast as I wanted to because he was unwilling to yell at me about my t-rex arms that 99% of the time looked as though they were not connected to my body. My requests for negative reinforcement was met with kind understanding and correction. What is the craziest part of this is that even after being stuck in my ways, wanting to be yelled at over encouraged, Nico’s positivity and encouragement actually led me to believe in myself, not because I beat myself up about how terrible I was and needing to get better, but because I started to believe in myself.  This is huge for an extreme perfectionist, and in a weird way made me evaluate my approach to negative reinforcement in more ways than just running. Is Nico a therapist in disguise? Who knows, but for a lot of people including myself, exercise is a type of therapy and for me it made me believe that maybe things don’t have to be perfect for you to be proud.

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When I first met with Nico, I made him aware of a current hip injury that I was waiting to see an orthopedic surgeon about. I was well aware that at some point there was a high likelihood of me making the suspected tear worse and that my doctor had told me that while they preferred I didn’t, if I wanted to run and ended up in extreme pain that was an indication I had made the tear worse and needed to stop. So when I say that an injury stopped me in NO way was this a result of Nico’s plan, in fact he altered the plan many times to try and avoid it. It’s important here to know I went against a doctor’s recommendations. 

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My last run that I completed was the best run of my life. For the first time it felt easy (well as easy as running ever is) and I actually enjoyed myself. As someone who had a goal of running 2 minutes without being out of breath, I ran six rounds of 8 minutes of running and a few minutes of walking in between. The last round at 7, I hit extreme pain and had to stop. While I am, and was upset that I had to stop training, there is something to be said for a coach who in a month and a half can take someone who cannot run 200m without being out of breath, to running 8 minutes straight, not being out of breath and loving it.

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Due to an injury my training with Nico was cut short. That being said once it is resolved Nico will be the first person I contact to start running again, hopefully with the doctor’s blessing. While I am an extreme beginner at running, Nico is incredibly talented and I have no doubt that he is suited to advanced runners. The key is that he never made me feel less than because I wasn’t. If you are thinking about a coach, hire him. If you need a plan, hire him. If you need technique help, hire him. If you think you’re a perfect runner… no one is, so hire him.

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If you need to believe in yourself because you’re stuck, hire him.

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- Erika Wallace